Lawyers Weekly Australia
The Federal Court has found that popstar Katy Perry infringed an Australian designer’s trademark, and that the conduct was “deliberate” and resulted in a “calculated disregard” for the designer’s trademark rights.
The outcome of the Federal Court of Australia case between the famous music artist and performer, Katy Perry, and the loungewear designer and small business owner, Katie Taylor, over the Australian trademark for Katie Perry, was published yesterday (27 April).
In the judgment of Taylor v Killer Queen, LLC, Justice Brigitte Markovic cribbed the popstar’s hit song Teenage Dream, noting: “This is a tale of two women, two teenage dreams and one name.”
The Federal Court proceedings were initiated in 2019 by Katie Taylor, whose birth name is Katie Perry, however, the altercation between Ms Taylor and Katheryn Hudson (who takes the stage name Katy Perry) began around 10 years earlier when the singer tried to belatedly prevent the designer’s Australian trademark application for her clothes from being registered.
Katie Taylor held her position and the singer abandoned her opposition to the registration of the Australian trademark application.
The trademark was registered to the designer as of 29 September 2008, which posed a barrier to registration by Katy Perry, for an Australian trademark application for ‘KATY PERRY’ in class 25 for clothes.
Ms Taylor designed and sold clothes under the brand name “KATIE PERRY” since 2007, whilst in 2002, Ms Hudson adopted the name Katy Perry for her professional music career and associated commercial merchandise, and since then, has used that name for such purposes.
For a decade, Ms Taylor did not pursue a case based on the trademark infringement, as she did not have the financial resources.
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